Single Stories.
What is a "single story"? A single story is when you only know one thing about a person or a group of people, and you base everything you know about that person or group of people on that one thing. Say, for instance, you're a skateboarder. Are you only defined be skate culture? Does that mean that you can't be into dancing, or singing, or construction, or carpentry, or engineering? Maybe, but each of us identifies with more than one thing. We are more complicated than each of us appear to be. Single Stories limit what we can know about each other, and can limit our own experiences if we get stuck on them.
I borrowed this idea from a woman named Chimamanda Adichie from Nigeria. Here is her Ted Talk, in which she explains what a Single Story is and why it is dangerous.
On this blog, I will be posting some "HOT LAVA" topics, based on some questions I would receive from students when I was working as a high school English teacher.
Please post your helpful comments, reflections, and suggestions for further inquiry and understanding. I sincerely hope that together we can work to learn more about each other than just a single story.
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